Eugene Goodheart (June 26, 1931 – April 9, 2020) was an American literary scholar. He was Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities at Brandeis University from 1983 to 2001.^[1]

Biography

Goodheart was born on June 26, 1931, in Brooklyn.^[2] He received his B.A. from Columbia College, M.A. from the University of Virginia, and Ph.D. from Columbia University in English and Comparative Literature in 1953.^[1][3] At Columbia, Goodheart studied under Lionel Trilling.^[1]

Goodheart served on the faculty of Bard College, University Chicago, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston University, where he was the chairman of the English department.^[1]

He joined the Brandeis faculty in 1983 as Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities and served as the chair of its English department.^[1] He also directed the Brandeis Center for the Humanities.^[2] He authored a number of books on literary theory and criticism as well as political and social commentary.^[4][5] Among his students at Brandeis University was Chinese American writer Ha Jin.^[6]

Goodheart received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1970 in literary criticism.^[7] He was also a National Humanities Center fellow in 1987–1988.^[8] He received an honorary doctorate from the City University of New York in 2014, for his “brilliant and provocative contributions to humanist criticism and scholarship.”^[9]

Personal life and family

Goodheart died on April 9, 2020, at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts.^[2] He was a close friend of Saul Bellow, who also taught at Bard College.^[10] According to biographer Zachary Leader, Bellow asked Goodheart on his deathbed, "Was I a man or was I a jerk?" To which Goodheart replied, "You were a good man."^[11][12]

He was married to Wellesley College anthropologist Joan Bamberger until his death.^[2][13]